State of Veterans Affairs is disgraceful ... it must get better

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

At least the federal government is consistent.

When this nation embarked on its two latest wars — Iraq and Afghanistan — it could be said, with a degree of reasonable certainty, that the powers that be failed to provide the necessary resources to ensure optimal outcomes of those conflicts.

There were countless stories of U.S. troops having to ask friends and family to send them essential items, items necessary for their safety and ability to wage war effectively — such as body armor. There were also countless stories about the number of U.S. troops being insufficient to secure stability in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And now that a lot of the veterans of those wars need our help the most, the resources needed to make sure they get it are wanting.

Consistent.And shameful.The backlog of cases being processed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is unacceptable. Hundreds of thousands of veterans, many of them living with debilitating injuries, have to wait months, sometimes years, for the VA to decide whether they qualify for assistance.

It’s getting better. The VA has cleared 97 percent of its backlogged claims that are more than two years old. And locally, at least the anecdotal evidence suggests it’s not as bad it could be.

But still, the situation is dire for the veterans awaiting help.

Claims filed by veterans from southeastern Pennsylvania are handled by the VA’s Philadelphia regional office, which, according to recent data, has a backlog of 16,281 pending claims. The average claim has been pending for 242 days.

That’s not so bad when you consider that veterans served by the Washington, D.C., regional office are looking at an average wait of 442 days — the worst in the country. The Baltimore and Pittsburgh offices also have very long waits.

It’s not that the VA is being negligent, said one county director of the Department of Veterans Affairs, an advocacy agency for local veterans, not affiliated with the federal government.

“The VA’s crushed,” he said. “We fought a lot of wars.”

It’s a matter of resources, and the lack of them. The VA simply doesn’t have the staff or money to keep up with the crush of claims.

Congress, for all of its ineptitude in other areas, appears prepared to do something about it. An amendment to the VA appropriation bill for 2014 would shift $44 million for overtime to VA offices with the worst backlogs. The bill has passed the House and it is pending in the Senate.

One legislator lauded that effort, but said, accurately enough, “It is not good enough in the long run. They are going to have to continue to do better.”

That they will.The amendment, while it could help address the worst backlogs, does not provide additional resources, or money, to the VA to get the job done. In the long run, that’s what might be needed.

There is a long, shameful tradition in this country of veterans complaining about the VA — and rightly so. The VA has, over the years, been consistent in being underfunded and understaffed to handle the needs of the men and woman who gave their country so much.